Actually, the media circus resulted when someone tipped the media to come watch this really cool raid on a cult. The media was involved before the first attempt at serving the warrant.

See:

www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/04/19/waco/index.html

Thankyou for being a voice of reason in this thread. I also talk about these things with Catholic friends and relatives. The key points I try to make are:

1) They have to reconcile their faith and their politics.

2) Looking to politicians for religious leadership means that their religion is GOP, dem, or whatever.

3) They will never be truly accepted. On the GOP side, Catholics are tolerated in the same manner as the log cabin republicans. Tolerated, but always viewed as too weird. On the dem side, tolerated by some, often and openly reviled by the anti religion faction, defended and befriended by none.

The team is focused on having the team leader in yellow. The other team members (domestiques) are expected to sacrifice themselves for the team leader. Remember Lemond waiting for Hinault to catch up?

A domestique would never be allowed to break away if it didn't help the team. So, the domestique gets a few hours of glory in return for putting the sponsor front and center. Fantastic! And if the domestique does brilliantly, he might draw more sponsorship and perhaps even a leader's berth.

Oh, and don't believe for a second that these guys have no pride or sense of purpose because they represent a corporation instead of a nation. Look at any football/baseball/hockey pro team. They don't have pride in their hometown (most are transients at best).

Blame the conservatives!

From what I've seen, neither the "conservatives" nor the "liberals" give a damn about maintaining infrastructure. The only time it is addressed is as part of new development. Maybe the development is for ritzy condos, maybe for youth centers. Either way, things are finally dug up and fixed up.

It's so much easier to build up new stuff and have ribbon cutting ceremonies. There aren't many photo ops for maintenance and it's hard to take credit when things keep working. On the other hand, the inconvenience of having the street dug up drives the citizenry insane.

The blame needs to be spread a little wider here.

I appreciate the deft touch.

You are correct, modern "conservatism" has chugged the free market koolaid. "If it don't break on my watch, fuck it! Where's my bonus?"

A truer conservative would follow a maintenance plan because it is so very much cheaper. After all, every bill comes due eventually. It's like changing the oil in a car. It's cheaper to just drive it (or not drive it) and avoid the inconvenience. The engine fails pretty quick though. Somehow, people now conflate the fool that doesn't change the oil with conservatism. In reality, foolishness knows no demographic.

I wonder - what would a liberal have done? Would the roads have been dug up or would the money have gone to the failing school system or special schools for teenage mothers? Would a liberal be happy watching an almost perfectly good sewer line get dug up and replaced?

OK, I read your link. We obviously read the same thing and received different messages. Here are some points of my confusion:

Firstly, do you equate conservative with republican? It doesn't work that way anymore. That's like calling the war monger dems "liberal".

Secondly, why did Catania leave the republican party and became independent? He did not become democrat. He may very well be a conservative to this day. Maybe he's an example of a conservative concerned with urban issues.

Thirdly, what are the anti-urban policies/issues? Infrastructure or day care? Sewers or shelters? Maintenance or services?

I see your points. We have a very slight disagreement. We both recognize a wrong, but don't agree on who is worse.

In both cases, neglect resulted in spare money. One guy uses it for tax cuts that primarily enriched the wealthy (who then donate to future campaigns). Another guy uses it for social/building programs and awards contracts to a select few (who then donate to future campaigns). Who's worse? I can't make that call.

I guess that personally, of the two I prefer the tax cuts because they can go into my "get of dodge before this rathole explodes" fund. I'd rather not have to flee. A touch of activism and maybe everyone can stay safely.

Hmmm, I gotta go fix some gutters and paint the outside molding.